My weekend away

It is not often we get a chance to duck away from our very busy lives to spend some much needed time with dear friends, those whom I see way to infrequently and hold a very special place in my heart.

A few of us flew to the big smoke for a friends 35th+5th birthday party.

What a treat to be able to be there to celebrate her big occasion, of course it was just heaps of fun and again got to see a bunch of people I haven't seen in years.

 My travel buddy and the birthday girl,

My first roommate from school, all those years ago, she is still a great girl with her very busy boys.
I miss her heaps.

And another good friend from primary school and Uni days, who put me up for the night, what a privilege to spend some time with her and her husband before their baby arrives.

Another special friend also came to visit me, it is always great to see her.

I don't feel old and nor am I, but I just feel so lucky to have such great bunch of friends, we can always pick up where we left off like time has not passed us by.

Apart from some nasty blisters acquired while trying to look business like for meetings. I opted for flats for the rest of the trip, a much more appropriate attire for shopping however not for running late for a plane that we absolutely couldn't miss. You could hear the pair of us clapping our sandal flats through the airport running to gate 48....

My boys, all of them were sooo very pleased to see me. They had a great time with Dad but you can tell they really liked having me home.

A fun filled 5 days...a week ago!

Sometimes the busy-ness of our lives borders on the ridiculous, but with itinerary in hand we were in pursuit of the finish line for school with distractions like:

Friday - Inter-school Swimming Carnival

Under 9s Cricket

ABBA Christmas party on behalf of ICPA

Saturday - Under 11s Cricket

Under 9s Christmas breakup

10 year old's birthday party....phew!
and birthday cake lovingly prepared by Auntie Pip..thanks!

Sunday - 10 year olds actual birthday

Parents 40th Wedding Anniversary

Another mighty feast by Pip...fabulous!

All the grandkids....gosh it is hard getting them to be still so I told them to be silly!

Clearly the girls are way more sensible....my kind of chicks! Mumma (great grandma in this case) looks unphased...

Monday - travel to Emerald for our schools' Interhouse Swimming Carnival

Followed by end of year presentations,

And yet another birthday cake generously prepared by my dearest friend, thanks J!

Home Tuesday to fires in the army country, whilst contained, they were still filling the sky with a brown haze....we could do with a drop of rain but gosh we slept well!

I actually can't believe we pulled it all off.

Tis time to relax for the holidays!

In the Christmas Spirit....

Traditions die hard around here at times, like putting the tree up on the 1st, pfft only if you are home I assume.

The boys set to decorate while I attended to all of those jobs that I pretend don't exist during the week....just what you want to be doing on a Sunday.

Looking like he is working on a car here....no just the Christmas tree.

Adorning the tree with a couple of home made decorations 

My new pin board for cards, made from an old frame, sprayed with white and covered with left over fabric,

And my most favourite, a panel of fabric kindly quilted and decorated by a very clever lady I know.

And our attempt at a star, BHG paper from a few seasons ago put to good use.

Gravel, grass and the precious ponies!

We delivered Dad out to his next DRY weather job, carting gravel for gateways.

I got a look at the breeders too, this is a fresh paddock, still going strong although dependent on weather we may shift these to another paddock. Our green date is the 15th of December, i.e. we expect to have received at least 2 inches by that date.  If it doesn't we will move them into our best paddocks and when it rains get them back into their own paddock. Not an easy job to shift a lot of breeders and calves but their welfare is extremely important.

After we delivered Dad we came across the horses.

This is Grace and her new foal to One Moore Playboy.

Note: in the background Honda and Fantasy (half sisters and in their 30s) are now retired. They didn't come up for a pat, they may have thought we had alterior motives.

Meet Grace's foal from last year, also to One Moore Playboy, she is beautiful and has a kind eye. She won't be broken in until next year.

This is Fantasy's last foal, Butter, she has a tonne of personality and was broken in last year. 

She has a kind eye and husband will do a bit with her next year. Rohan has gotten so keen on his horses. He had a small buster a few weeks ago which makes the heart flutter, so we are on the hunt for a decent horse for him....not an easy thing to find.